I would like to be contacted via

Where did you hear about us?

Privacy Statement

Gentoo Homes is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy.

This statement (together with our terms of use and any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. We keep certain basic information when you visit our website and recognise the importance of keeping that information secure and letting you know what we will do with it.

For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 2018 (the Act), the data controller is Gentoo Group of 2 Emperor Way, Doxford International Business Park, Sunderland, SR3 3XR (Gentoo Group Limited is a charitable community benefit society, registration number 7302).

This notice only applies to Gentoo Group (or its subsidiaries) activities including our website. If you leave our site via a link or otherwise, you will be subject to the policy of that website provider. We have no control over that policy or the terms of the website and you should check their policy before continuing to access the site.

Trust and transparency

Your trust is very important to us and we are committed to keeping your data safe and secure. We will never sell your personal details to anyone and will only use your data for the purposes we tell you about. We will always explain clearly what information we are collecting about you and why.

Our aim is to put you in control of what happens with your data.

Information we may collect from you

We may collect and process the following data about you:

Information that you provide by filling in forms on our site www.gentoogroup.com. This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our site, subscribing to our service or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our site.

We may collect your name and contact details, personal information in relation to rent payments, and repairs or job applications.

When you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.

We may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.

We may record any telephone calls made into the Group for quality and monitoring purposes.

We employ CCTV cameras for the security and safety of our neighbourhoods as well as some offices. CCTV locations are clearly marked by signage at building entrances and near the actual camera locations

COVID-19

Due to the unprecedented challenges we are all facing during the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), Gentoo may collect and process additional personal and special category data beyond that which we would ordinarily collect. This is to ensure your safety and the wellbeing of our employees and contractors.

Such information will be limited to what is proportionate and necessary, taking into account the latest guidance issued by the Government, the Information Commissioner’s Office and health professionals, in order to manage and contain the virus. It enables us to effectively fulfil our functions and to keep you, your family, and our colleagues and contractors safe, put contingency plans in place to safeguard those vulnerable and to aid business continuity.

Website related IP addresses and cookies

We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns and does not identify any individual specifically and we will not collect personal information in this way.

We may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer. The use of cookies helps us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service. They enable us:

to estimate our audience size and usage pattern.

to store information about your preferences, and so allow us to customise our site according to your individual interests.

to speed up your searches.

to recognise you when you return to our site.

You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you log on to our site.

We also use Google analytics to review where our customers access our website from. If you’d like to switch that function off, there is an Opt-Out add on for your internet browser available to download here:https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/

Uses made of the information

When we collect information about you, we will provide you with a summary of what we will do with that information. We may require the information in order to provide you with a service, and we may also need your permission. We will explain that at the time you are asked to provide the information.

We will use the information held about you in the following ways:

To enable us to provide you with the Housing Management service you have entered into an agreement for, to pay your rent, to report a repair to apply for a job online,

For internal record keeping

To analyse and improve our services

To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes.

To notify you about changes to our service.

If you do not want us to use your data in this way, or to pass your details on to third parties for marketing purposes, please ensure you do not tick the relevant box situated on the form on which we collect your data. You will always have that choice where appropriate.

Who we will share your information with

We do not share your information with third parties without your consent unless there is a legitimate business reason, as required by law or other legal processes which requires us to do so. We use third-party suppliers and sub-contractors in some parts of our business who will require some of your personal information in order to complete work for us. We may disclose your personal information to third parties:

In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.

If we are under a legal duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud or crime prevention or detection and credit risk reduction.

In order to help protect the public funds it receives, Gentoo Group voluntarily takes part in the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) data matching exercise carried out by the Cabinet Office. This initiative involves the matching of electronic data within and between public and private sector bodies to prevent and detect fraud. This does not require your consent under the Data Protection Act 1998 but we feel it appropriate to inform you. Further information is available on the Government’s National Fraud Initiative.

We will never sell your personal information.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have in place suitable physical, digital and operational procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect and process.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will always inform you at the point of collecting your data if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by not checking the relevant box(es) on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting our Data Protection Officer at dataprotectionofficer@gentoogroup.comand 0191 525 5000.

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers, and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

You have the right to access the information we hold about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Access to information is free unless the information provided is excessive and if so, may be subject to a minimal fee to meet our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you. Once an access request has been submitted formally with the correct information for us to be able to reply, the information will be provided within 30 days.

You have the right to have inaccurate information updated and where notified, we will ensure this is carried out quickly, and you have the right for information to be erased as long as we do not need to maintain that information for legal or other relevant needs e.g. we could not erase all of your information if you are one of our current housing tenants. We will also ensure that anyone we have agreed to share that information with also complies.

You have the Right to Complain to our supervisory authority which is the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), if you feel that we have not dealt with your request properly or you have a concern about the way in which we are handling your information. The ICO would suggest you contact us first to allow us to help rectify the issue however if this fails or you remain dissatisfied, the ICO can be contacted directly online at: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/your-personal-information-concerns/or on the telephone by calling: 0303 123 1113. You can also write to them at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Changes to our privacy statement

Any changes we may make to our privacy statement in the future will be posted on this page and we advise that you check this page regularly to keep up to date with any necessary changes.

Contact

Questions, comments, and requests regarding this privacy statement are welcomed and should be emailed to dataprotectionofficer@gentoogroup.com, telephone number 0191 525 5000 or by post to Data Protection Officer, 2 Emperor Way, Doxford International Business Park, Sunderland, SR3 3XR.